Skip to content
Eklavya

First run

Run this once per machine. It takes one exchange. Here is exactly what happens, in order, so nothing surprises you.

The five things it does

  1. It checks your prerequisites

    Claude runs node --version. That is the only requirement, so if it is 22 or newer you are ready; if it is older, setup tells you how to upgrade on your platform and stops there.

  2. It confirms the database exists

    The server creates and seeds ~/.eklavya/knowledge.db the first time it starts. Setup verifies it by counting the seeded concepts:

    Terminal window
    sqlite3 ~/.eklavya/knowledge.db 'select domain, count(*) from concepts group by domain'

    You should see four starter domains: web-auth, react, node-backend and git. If the file does not exist, the MCP server is not running — check /plugin for errors.

  3. It asks you to choose a mode

    How hard Eklavya should push. If you are not sure, take the default.

    • ambient (default) — questions arrive as you work and are always skippable.
    • enforced — you must pass the session quiz before a commit goes through. For interns and onboarding.
    • off — installed but dormant.

  4. It asks you to choose a focus

    What Eklavya should teach. Again, the default is fine.

    • concept (default) — the transferable idea behind the code. Best when you are learning a stack.
    • project — the code that was just written: this file, this line, this decision. Best when you are learning a codebase.
    • learn — a topic you name, taught in prerequisite order. Requires a topic.

    Both answers are written to ~/.eklavya/config.json — or to .eklavya.json at the repository root if you say you want them to apply to this project only. You can change them any time with /eklavya:mode.

  5. If you chose enforced, it installs the git hook

    "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}"/scripts/install-git-hook.sh

    Without this, only commits made inside Claude Code are gated. See the commit gate. Skip this step for ambient or off.